Envelope



May 6 1924.

- R. N. GEFFROY ENVELOPE Filed 00%.. 6, 1922 ATTORNEYS Patented May 6, 1924'.

PATENT OFFICE.

RALPH NELSON GEFFBOY, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

ENVELOPE.

Application flied October 6, 1 92 2. Serial No. 592,800.

To all whom itmay concern:

Be it known that I, RALPH N. GEFFROY, a citizen of'the United States, and a .resident of the city of New York, borough of Manhattan, in-the county and State of New York, have invented anewand Improved Envelope, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

This I invention relates te improvements in paper receptacles, and has particular reference to an envelope.

' Heretofore the manufacture of envelopes has entailed a large waste of paper due, not so much to the quantity of paper used in forming each individual envelope,\but to the configuration of the blanks of which the envelopes are made and which are cut from one continuous sheet.= In the ordinary construction of envelopes each blank consists of a body forming the front of the envelope, two side flaps, and a bottom flap, which are folded to provide the back of the envelope, and a closure or top flap employed to seal the envelope. When cutting the blanks of such envelopes the bottom and closure flaps ;.are of substantially the same configuration to the extent that their greatest transverse width is at the central portions thereof.

Due to this construction it is necessa to cut the blanks from the continuous s eet in staggered relation to each other and in so doing considerable paper is wasted in 1 forming-lthe flaps and particularly the bot-.

i the blanks are formed cessive blanks are aligned and the bottom flap of each blank .is formed by the cutting of the closure or top flap of the next adjacent blank so that the cutaway portion or free longitudinal. edge of said bottom flap is of the same configuration as the free edge ofsaid closure flap. This results in the bottom. flap having its greatest transverse width at the ends thereof and'the closure flap having its greatest width at the central portion thereof. "-Also in forming the blank the front'and-"bottom: flaps are made. of the samewwidth, whereas the closure flap isof less width than sai-difront' and bottom flap, the closure flapb'eing formed -by simply cutting away a very small portion ofthe strip at opposite points thereof between the closure flap of one blank and the bottom flap of a next adjacent blank. By thus forming the bottom and closure flaps it will be obvious that practically no waste of paper will result from the cuttingoperation.

It has also been heretofore'su gested to provide a line of perforations ad acent and parallel to the ends of an envelope and to secure reinforcing strips to said ends to facilitate the opening of the envelope when removing the contents thereof. In known constructions of this character, and notably the patent to Denson, No. 750,350, dated January 26th, 1904, wherein perforations are used, it has been found that considerable di-fiiculty is'experienced in severing the ends of the envelope along the lines of such perforations, due to the fact that perforations are insufficient to provide anadequate tearing line, particularly when it is necessary to sever the end sections of the envelo e which are formed by the front and si e flaps thereof, in addition to those portions .of. the bottom and closure flaps which overlap said side flaps. With such a construction it ofttimes occurs, that in severing an end section the tearingwill not follow the line of perforations, but will include'portions of the body of the. envelope as well with the ensuing possibility that the contents of the envelope will be tornif proper care is not exercised. Also with an envelope as shown'in the above mentioned patent, wherein a reinforcing strip or band is secured to each end section of the envelope there is nothing to prevent the contents of the envelope-from working outwardly or endwise beyond the line vof perforations and underthe reinforcing strip during the passage of the envelope through the mails, so that unless the recipient thereof first forces said contents into one end" of the envelope and. clear of the other end thereof, the probability. is that said contents will be torn when severing the latter end. Furthermore by securing a reinforcing strip or band. over each end section of the enve-' possibility of an accidental tearing or severing of said strip.

Another object is to provide an improved tearing line which is so formedthat the com tents of the envelope will be prevented from moving endwise thereof beyond said line so that when the end section of the envelope is severed, said contents will be free from any possibility of accidental tearing;

A further object is to reduce to a minimum the waste of material resulting from the cutting of a blank.

The above and other objects will appear 1 more clearly from the following detail description, when taken in connection with the accompanying drawing, which illustrates a preferred embodiment of the inventive idea.

In the drawing Figure 1 is a plan view of an envelope constructed in accordance with the inven tion;

Figure 2 is a vertical transverse section through the envelope;

Figure 3 is a fragmentary lan view of the continuous strip from w ich the envelope blanks are cut and illustrating the formation of the blank of each envelope;

Figure 4 is a greatly enlarged section on the line 4-4 of Figure 1-, showing the manner of interlocking the sheets comprising the body and reinforcing strip of the envelope;

Figure 5 is a fragmentary enlarged lan view of an end section of the envelope s owv ing the tearing line therefor; and

Figure 6 is a section on the line 6.6 of

., Figure 4.

Referring to Figures 1 to 3 and more partlcularly to the latter figure, it will be seen that the envelopes are formed from a continuous strip of material, such as paper, which is of a width equal to that of the entire envelope and that each blank is in direct alignment with the next. adjacent blanks. The body or front 7 of each blank is defined by the dotted lines 8, the ends of the inner face of which are ed, as

indicated at 9, so that when t e blank isfolded to form the envelope theends of the bottom flap 10 may be secured to the front 7. The bottom flap 10 is formed by .cutting the material along the transverse line 11, which extends transversely of the strip of material and which also definesthe free longitudinal edge of the top or closure flap 12. Said edge of the closure flap and the similar edge of the bottom flap will be of the same configuration. The free longitudinal edge of cated at 14, at points contiguous to adjacent bottom and closure flaps so that the latter flaps will be of slightly less width than the body of the envelope, as clearly illustrated in Figure 1, thus forming extensions at each end of the envelope'which are of substantially the same width as the gummed portions 9. In addition to gluing the bottom section 10 to the front 7 the ends of the envelope are further closed by means of reinforcing strips 15, which, when folded over the ends, are of the same width as the gummed portions 9.

In carrying out the invention it is proposed to forma tearing line, generally indicated at 16, along the edges of the reinforcing and closure strips 15, which will permit of the end sections of the envelope being severed from the body portion thereof when it is desired to remove the contents. In the formation of this tearing line use is preferably made of a pair of cooperating rollers 17 and 18 having teeth 19 and 20 about the peripheries thereof, which are arranged in staggered relation with respect to each other and are of gradually increasing depth toward their outer ends so that the outer ends thereof will intermesh, as illustrated in' Figure 4. Adjacent edges of these teeth are spaced one from the other about two thousandths of an inch so that as the ends of the envelope are passed therebetween the teeth will not penetrate the sheets forming the envelope and reinforcing strips, but will merely crush the same to form a-tearing line in the nature of a crimp, wherein the sheets forming the front 7, bottom flap 1O andthe reinforcing strips 15 will be interlocked, as illustrated in Figures 4 and 5. The pro jecting edges of the teeth of one roller are also inclined or arranged at an angle with respect to the plane of the envelope and also with respect to the projecting edges of the other roller'so that-the crimps formed by said teeth will increase in depth toward said tearing line. As the ends of the envelopes are passed between the rollers the teeth of the latter slightly overlap the edges of the reinforcing strip 15 so that a port on of the front 7 and bottom flap 10 will also be crimped with the result that after the tearing line has e n f rmed the edges of the Ill ' ing and interlocking of the sheets along the line of the edges of the reinforcing strip, it will be obvious that the contraction of the body of the envelope at these points will form an effective means to prevent the contents of the envelope from moving outwardly or endwise past the tearing line andbeneath the reinforcing strip and thus becoming torn when an end section of the envelope is severed along the tearing line 16.-

- In actual practice the formation of the tearing line 16 is accomplished simultaneously with the attachment of the transverse edges of the bottom flap 10 to the gummed portions 9, which latter operation is also performed by the rollers 17 and 18. With the gummed portions 9 moistened, it is obvious that by reason of the formation ofthe teeth 19 and 20 and the extreme contraction of the material at the outer 'ends of said teeth, theglue will be prevented from passing inwardly beyond the tearing line and onto the inner surfaces of the front 7 and bottom flap 10, thus avoiding the undesirable possibility of these parts adhering to each other afterthe envelope ismade ready for use.

It has been found in actual practice that by forming the tearing line 16 in the manner above described the end sections of the envelope may be easily and quickly severed without tearing any portion of the body of the envelope and that the combined effect of securing the bottom flap to the front by an adhesive and interlocking said portions together with a reinforcing strip 15 provides an effective means for preventing the contents of the envelope from moving outwardly or endwise thereof.

I claim:

1. In an envelope, a body including a front and a bottom flap, a reinforcing strip folded over adjacent ends of said front and flap, and a tearing line formed by crimping the edges of said strip and the material forming said front and bottom flap, the

crimped edges of-said reinforcing strip being embedded in and substantiall in the same plane with portions of the b0 y which they engage.

2. In an envelope, a body including sheets I forming front and bottom flaps, a reinforcing strip folded over adjacent ends of said front and bottom flaps, and a tearingline formed adjacent one edge of said body by crimping the material of said flaps and said reinforcing strip along the edges of the latter, the crimps overlapping said edges and extending into said flaps.

3. In an envelope, a body portion including a, front and a bottom flap, reinforcin strips secured to the ends of said front an said bottom flap, and tearing lines formed along the edges of said body portion by crushing said front, .bottom flap and reinforcing strips into interlocking relation.

4. In an envelope, a body portion, reinforcing strips secured to the ends of said body portion, and a tearing line extending along an end of said body portion at a distance from the edge thereof, saidtearing line being formed by crimping the body portion and reinforcmg strip, each crim increasing in depth from said edge towar said tearing line.

5. In an envelope, a body including front and bottom flaps, and a tearing line for said body extending longitudinally of one edge thereof, said tearing line being formed by crimping the material of said aps into interlocking relation, and each crimp increasing in depth from one end to the other.

6. In an envelope, a body including front and bottom flaps, a reinforcing strip secured to said flaps at one end of said body, and a tearing line formed along said end of said body by crimping the material of said flaps and said reinforcing stri the crimps overlap ing the edges of sai reinforcing strip an extending into said flaps.

RALPH NELSON GEFFROY. 

